Fittings

Multiple costumes for 40 people!  

Wardrobe at Big League Productions 42nd Street

19 days in and the first part of this adventure is already over! Rehearsal in NYC: Done ✔️ We learned the entire show in under three weeks; the dance ensemble did their part in just two. And they are amazing! They are all young and beautiful and energetic and smart and quick and I'm in awe as their talent for tapping makes me tired just to watch them each day.  BTW tapping just makes you happy! You can't help smiling... that's a whole other post, as is my love for NYC. (Coming later)  I'm California through and through, and have been told so by many a northerner.  I guess it's the tan, blonde thing? IDK but I do know my way round Manhattan by now and I'm not tired of it yet.  Im not sure I could live here forever, but I'm sad to be leaving for a while. We'll be back to NY during the tour. 

These opening couple of weeks, to me, have been primarily about fittings. Costume fittings, shoe fittings, wig fittings... yes, those all happened. Great skilled people all over the city are seeing to it that I look and feel my best and that's so cool.  Very grateful. 

These are not my beautiful feet. They are Geo's or Mallory's or one of our other lovelies. Follow the show on Instagram or Twitter as above! 

But also rehearsal fitting: fitting into a scene with other actors and a director, fitting line and lyric memorization into your head, fitting a song into your range with a great music supervisor (Andrew Graham and conductor (Matt Lowy), fitting into choreo design (Randy Skinner, Stephanie Brooks) with 40 people on stage, fitting into the mold of an iconic Diva of a character and finding how she fits into you, fitting into a new city, fitting into a new social group of people who, like it or not, are your family for the next six months.  

Adam Kidd (director) and Mark Bramble (Writer and Tony revival winner) giving notes after final rehearsal run.  

We have run the show every day this week with varying degrees of success and improvement every day. This has included visits from the original writer and choreographer from the tony winning revival of the show to give us the history of this piece of theatre of which we get to be a part.  42nd Street hasn't stopped running somewhere in the world since the day it opened at the Winter Garden Theatre in NYC in 1980.  There is a Paris cast now.  London cast opens in March and we are carrying this tradition in the US.  What an honor. Tomorrow we move to PA. Yes, that's Pennsylvania, for a week of tech. It's the next step in the game.  We tech the show in a full sized theatre with a tony winning lighting designer (Ken Billington) and sets (Beowulf Britt).  Lots still to be done. Things still to be fitted.  Characters, lines, choreo, etc. are still being polished (Adam, if you ever read this, "Loves old song WILL be new" WILL! WILL!) and its time for tech to fit. We have an audience in a week.  It's time.  Pieces are fitting. People are fitting... like a glove... a shoe, a wig... whatever! 

Cast emergen-c toast before our first run together.  Healthy, happy tour! Cheers!